The Hon. Dr Kevin Rudd AC, Global CEO of the Asia Society, will Address the National Press Club on “Navigating Australia’s Future in an Uncertain World”.
Our era is often characterised by its uncertainty. That is a fair label considering the gamut of technological, political and social changes unfurling before our eyes. However, just because the future is uncertain, it does not have to be unnavigable. The future, in many ways, belongs to resilient countries with resilient peoples and resilient institutions.
In his address to the National Press Club, Kevin Rudd will reflect on how Australia can seize the opportunities to navigate this uncertain future, drawing particularly on his recent tenure as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States.
BIO:
Kevin Rudd is global CEO of the Asia Society, an international relations institution founded in New York with 16 centres around the world. Dr Rudd returned to lead Asia Society in 2026 following three years as Australian Ambassador to the United States.
Dr Rudd served two terms as Australia’s Prime Minister (2007-2010 and 2013) and also Foreign Minister (2010-2012). An international authority on China, he has authored two books on US-China relations: ‘The Avoidable War’ (2022); and ‘On Xi Jinping’ (2024), based on his doctoral thesis examining the Chinese President’s ideological worldview.
In office, Dr Rudd led Australia’s response to the Global Financial Crisis, independently reviewed as the most effective strategy of any developed economy, with Australia alone in avoiding recession. He is a co-founder of the G20 Summit and drove reform of Indo-Pacific strategic architecture, UN reform and global climate action. His other legacies include the Apology to Indigenous Australians, Closing the Gap, paid parental leave, the national school curriculum, National Broadband Network, National Disability Insurance Scheme, plain-packaging of tobacco, renewable energy production and modernising the health system.
Dr Rudd’s diplomatic career began in 1981 with postings to Beijing and Stockholm. He later served as Chief-of-Staff to Queensland Premier Wayne Goss, Director-General of the Cabinet Office, and a senior China consultant for KPMG before being elected to parliament in 1998. He graduated with a DPhil from Oxford University, Honours in Chinese language and Asian history from the ANU, and studied Mandarin at National Taiwan Normal University.
